Chronicles of coaching American football in Italy (2008, 2009 & 2018), in Sweden (2010, 2016 & 2017), in Switzerland (2012), winning a Division III National Championship in France (2012-13), in Spain (2015 & 2016) and in Mexico (2017) as well as walking the Camino de Santiago in August-September of 2010.

About Me

I have been married to Laurie for over 46 years. Our oldest son, Andy, lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife Jenn and their son Kevin. Our youngest son Mike lives in Oxnard, California with his wife Vanessa and their kids Jacob and Mary. Although I retired from teaching in June of 2007, the 2015 football season marked my 45th year of coaching football at five high schools in Southern California's Ventura County - Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Rio Mesa, Buena and Newbury Park. In 2008, I opted to try something totally different in my coaching career and started coaching in Europe. My EuroBall stops have been in Catania, Sicily in 2008 & '09, Hässleholm, Sweden in 2010, Thun, Switzerland in 2012, Lyon, France in 2012-13 with the 12-0 National Champion Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons, Murcia, Spain in 2015, Rivas, Spain in 2016, Upplands-Väsby, Sweden in the Spring of 2016 & '17, in Mexico to coach the Europe Warriors in Aug. & Dec. 2017 and now in 2018 in Varese, Italy. Join me as I explore and chronicle my newest adventures coaching American football in Europe. My European touring also included a 500 mile Pilgrimage Walk on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2010.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Little of This and That About French Football . . .

Monday night we had a solid Cadet team practice followed by a video session for the Junior squad to watch their performance in their game last Sunday, a 38-8 loss to the two-time defending National Champion Thonon Les Bains Black Panthers.

I had a chance to roam about Lyon again today from Charpennes to Place Bellecour. As usual, I saw some things of interest.

O.K. Then . . .

Arr, Matey!

That's more like it . . .

Spring and love is in the air

Eggheads

Stately Residences

Be Strong

Very Nice Sun Dial

Looks like EXPENSIVE cuisine to me

Be Stronger

Hi, Yourself!

Oh, Goodness . . .

It's Sunny, Shade Your Eyes

Splash

Église St-Polycarpe

Built in 1642, this façade called Baby Jesus Among Angels, was mutilated by cannon balls during the 1793 siege of Lyon in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

In a surprise move, I opted to step inside.

Big Toes

Ornate Side Altar

St. Paul

World War I Memorial

of St-Polycarpe Parishioners

Modern Art Last Supper

in St-Polycarpe?

Spring is SO close to being here full time!

Near Place Bellecour

It was now late afternoon and as I strolled past the Pathé Theater, I noted that an American movie with French subtitles, a.k.a., VO (Version Originale) was about to start.

As an added inducement, the price of admission was only 3.50 Euros, down from the usual 8.30 Euros I had paid before as a proud Senior.

The film . . .

As Curious as last Sunday's Referees

While not the worst movie I've seen, I also can't say that I would recommend it.

Falcons Season Report

We have, of course, reported that our Senior team is 6-0 and leading the Sud Poule C with only two games left in the regular season. The Seniors next game is at St-Cergues on Sunday, March 31st against the 5-1 Bulldogs.

Our Senior Bteam (21 and older) has struggled and is currently 1-5 with three games left on their Division IV schedule. This team is a developmental project for our inexperienced and/or older players who are physically not ready to compete on the Senior team. The B team next plays this Sunday at Annecy against the Avalanches. This will be the third meeting between these two teams. The Falcons won at home 6-0 back on October 7th, while the Avalanches won the rematch in Annecy 29-0 on November 11th. The B team started playing games on September 30, 2012 and have their last contest on May 5, 2013, that is just over SEVEN MONTHS!

The Falcon Junior team (18-20 years old) is now 1-1 with two games left on their abbreviated four game regular season schedule. They play at Chambéry against the Aigles this Saturday.

Finally, the Cadet team is 1-0 and plays three more games before their playoffs start. Their next game, a Derby, is set for Sunday, March 31st at Lyon versus the Gones.

The Flag Football team is 2-1 and I'm not sure if they have any more games as I don't coach this group and no other games are posted for them on the Falcons website.

Now, it must be remembered that all of these teams, except the Flag team, have been padded up and practicing two nights a week since the beginning of September! A different type of mind set is needed to practice for months before ever playing in a game. Thank goodness that the Juniors and Cadets at least had a few scrimmages to help them on the long road to the season's beginning!

Since the Senior Falcons team officially qualified for the French Division III playoffs on Sunday by improving their record to 6-0, I thought we take a look at the current playoff picture

The 16 team French National Playoffs begin the weekend of April 27-28 with a North and South bracket set-up.
The Southern bracket selection is much simpler. Each of the top two teams from the four Southern leagues automatically qualify for the tournament.
Here are the current contenders as posted on Olivier Rival's excellent French American football blog that you can find at http://fr-sideline.blogspot.frThe Northern Bracket will feature the five Northern league champions plus the three best second place teams. I have no idea what the criteria will be to select these three runner-up squads, especially when four of the five teams currently in second place in the North have only one loss on their records.North Poule A(6 Teams)Terville Gueles Jaunes 7-0Strasbourg Minotaure 6-1North Poule B(5 Teams)St-Herblain Dockers 6-0Brest Tonnerre 4-2-1North Poule C(6 Teams)

Asnières Molosses B 5-1-1

Caen Conquerants 5-1

North Poule D(5 Teams)

Tours Pionniers 7-0

Chatney Malabry Mousquetaires 3-1

North Poule E(5 Teams)

Villepinte Diables Rouges 5-0

La Courneuve Flash B 4-1

The Southern Bracket selection process is much simpler. Each of the top two teams from each of the four Southern leagues automatically qualify for the tournament.

South Poule A(5 Teams)

Montrabe Comètes 6-0

Longages Scorpions 4-2

South Poule B(5 Teams)

Pau Sphinx 4-1

Bordeaux Lions 3-1-1

South Poule C(5 Teams)

Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons 6-0

St-Cergues Bulldogs 5-1

South Poule D(3 Teams)

Marseille Blue Stars 2-0-1

Marseillan Dragons 1-1-1

International All-Star Game

Interesting game on March 30th, near Paris. An All-Star team of French Juniors, under 18 years of age, will take on a similar roster of American high school players. I wonder if any Ventura County players are on the U.S. team?

I'd like to go see it but we have a big game against the St-Cergues Bulldogs (5-1) the next day and it an be viewed live on line I've been told.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Few words :

- about "ORSI" restaurant. The Chef and owner of this restaurant is Monsieur Pierre Orsi, one of the most famous Chef in the city.He was (probably) formed at arts of cooking by the world-famous Chef Paul Bocuse.we're talking about arts of cooking, not just fooding."ORSI" has 1 star in the guide Michelin which is a kind of bible in arts of cooking. (105 restaurants in the world have 3 stars (27 in France, 32 in Japan !!! ) . In France 116 have 2 stars, 416 have 1 star.A diner at "ORSI" cost 115 €uros/145 $. without wine.

- about the french national football team vs a US high school selection : one of our cadets, Ibel Ahidazan is in the french selection, as CB. "sad" news, he won't play with us against the Gones, at the end of the month.